AW have done it this time

I got my laptop back from repair the 2nd time and still no fix to the shutter. There is 0% communication in the departments, I told them to downgrade the processor if they can't fix it and of course they did not listen (They were told this at least 2 times).

So when it returned to me, I opened the box to find my Blu-Ray drive sitting there, not screwed in. I accepted that, fine it can be easy to forget 1 thing like that in a big system full kitted M17, my shutter came back and to top it all off they damaged the headphone jack during repair, sound output through the port will only work if the jack is positioned at an angle.

I spoke to a representative 2 weeks ago and I told him what MY options are. That being if this is returned to me still unfixed, I will get my refund, the agent agreed to this so that is the next step. I'm not venting by the way, just letting people know my side of the story incase they want to buy from Alienware.

 

Wow, sorry to hear about your misfortune.

At least you'll get your money back.

So...............................are you looking at the new M17X now?

 

I had hoped to Rob, but sadly I'll steer away from AW for a while. My desktop still runs amazing though, so I can't fault them on that. I'm a little bit lost with laptops now, AW seem to always have the right layout for me but I just can't wait another 2-3 months for a laptop which I need for DJing as soon as possible! Don't get my wrong, the M17 runs amazing when everything is fine, but I can't have it shuttering on a live set

 

It's too bad you had this experience, but I sure understand your predicament.

 

I have fixed the problem by undervolting the CPU. You can try it.

 

100% fixed the problem? What is involved?

 

just get a refund and get the new m17x! You can have the lights cycle diff colors during your sets. That would kick a*s!

 

The M17x is more Dell than Alienware anyway.

 

Same here, undervolting (more like correcting wrong BIOS Voltages) the QX9300 to 1.050V all way up to 2.53 GHz fixed my shutters.
Stock voltages are set at 1.200V which is a) too high and b) above the allowed maximum spec of 1.175V.

Download CPUgenie and give it a try.
If you are more familiar with undervolting, I recommend using CrystalCPUID.

To anyone wondering "uuuh my voltages are even higher at 1.163V - 1.313V":
Don't worry, they are not. Newer CPUZ Versions and CPUID read the mobile processor voltages wrong. In reality it is 1.050V - 1.200V.

For me this is a temporary fix only. We need a better BIOS. The current BIOS is a (bad) joke.

 

I'm not surprised at all. Don't count on the refund, they told me the same thing like twice already. When you get your refund let me know how you did it. Thanks. And good luck.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=386971

 

Full refund offered, just have to pack up the laptop and the extras I bought and ship it back. I just explained everything, my case and everytime I had called.

Lightboy56 I only think that maybe thery won't refund because the system is over a year old. I mean apart from the CPU in mine everything I would assume is reusable.

EDIT: Just reading through your post Lightboy56, I don't why at this stage you would not be entitled to a full refund.

Just some things which I did, I took the name of nearly all agents I spoke to, or at least the agents were critical decisions were made, all the support is in my email inbox and they should have all phone calls(which is nearly 80% of the way I contacted them) recorded. So essentially everything that has been said to me is present and documented and everything I said them is documented I assume by them. I kept everything for legal reasons.

 

So you're saying, if need be, a lawyer can subpoena the phone records from Alienware? If that's the case, my case just got much easier.

 

Well I don't know if they can, but all the phone calls are recorded for training purposes, so surely they can be used to reveal actual support calls between a client and AW.

EDIT: As I said in my case this is around 80% of the support, but I have the agent I spoke to about the refund, documented through email and phone calls. I am still not confident that I will get my refund easily though, they will take everything back in ( all extras etc), diagnose the system again and then offer the refund. With my case the problem could appear one day and not the next, but its certainly there, but the blu ray drive and headphone jack set me over the edge. They'll probably try underhand me again with a lame excuse, but I've told them I'm about to finish an Honours Degree in Computing so theres so pulling the wool over my eyes!